Smart Shopping: 3 Steps You MUST Follow When Buying A Far Away Item

Every purchase is about value to me. If I believe an item will provide value to justify it’s cost, then it’s worth buying. People will obviously have differing perspectives as to the value attributed to specific things.

To my son, a forty five minute drive to buy soda in a special edition bottle had a lot of value.

I got a text in the middle of the school day from my son stating he and his friends wanted to drive to a nearby town to buy a certain type of specialty soda that was being sold with a label promoting the new video game Fallout 4. My son was having his friends over the following evening to have an all night gaming party and thought that having the soda with the promotional label would be a nice touch. Apparently, none of the retailers in our smallish city had the product with the promotional product in stock, but the Target in the neighboring town did.

After school, he and his friends drove 90 miles round trip to get the soda. In addition to the actual price of the soda, it cost him hours of his time, and the price of several gallons of gasoline. To my son, it was worth it to be able to have the soda with the promotional label at his gaming party.

Sometimes we’ll purposefully put in an extra effort and overpay for an item we really want because it’s value to us is even greater than the price tag. We might drive out of our way, paying in both time and travel costs to get something we really want. But, If you’re going to do it, there’s a few steps to follow to ensure that you don’t waste a trip.

Research The Item

Make sure that the item is not available somewhere closer. My son checked both online and called multiple retailers searching for the promotional bottle. When his search failed within our city, he searched the internet for other nearby possibilities.

Make a Phone Call

Once you believe you’ve found the object of your desire, call the specific retailer location and make sure that they actually have it in stock. Even though the website said that the item was in stock, since the retailer was 45 minutes away, my son called the store and verified they had the soda.

Reserve The Item

Ask if they could hold the item at the customer service desk. My son explained that he was driving from a considerable distance to get the soda, and asked if they could hold it for him. They were happy to help him out, finding some humor he was driving such a long distance for the promotional bottle.

After school let out for the day, my son and two of his friends drove to the nearby town and purchased the soda with the promotional bottle. The value of having the item for his gaming party was high enough for him to go through the extra lengths to get it. But, he was smart about it, making sure he knew the item was in stock, and saved for him. All he had to do was go pick it up.

Have you ever had to put in extra effort to get an item that had high value to you? What lengths did you have to go through to get it?